Trans woman jailed in San Jose
shooting

NEWS

by Seth Hemmelgarn

A transgender woman is in jail after allegedly shooting her
ex-husband outside the South Bay Costco where he worked.

Nori Tejero, 44, of San Jose, has been charged with assault
with a firearm in the July 5 shooting and is being held in Milpitas' Elmwood
Correctional Facility on $175,000 bail. Tejero is expected to enter a plea July
31.

Dani Castro, a friend of Tejero's, described her as "very
loving" and said, "Nori has contributed decades of her life to
improving the lives of trans people, and she's mentored many, many trans
women."

However, Castro, who's also a transgender woman, said that
Tejero's long marriage to the victim had ended because of "years of
abuse."

The shooting happened at about 12:30 p.m. last Wednesday in
the parking lot of the Costco at 5301 Almaden Expressway. According to police,
responding officers located the male victim "suffering from at least one
gunshot wound." He was taken to a local hospital to be treated for
non-life threatening injuries.

Tejero "was located at the scene and taken into custody
without incident," police said. The gun was recovered.

In a news release, police said, "The motive and
circumstances surrounding the shooting are under investigation."

Officer Albert Morales, a police spokesman, said in an email
Monday that no further information was available.

Castro said the victim, whose name the Bay Area Reporter
isn't publishing, is "very quiet" and "tended to be
friendly," but she'd heard about his abuse of Tejero
"constantly."

Asked about behavior she'd seen firsthand, Castro said that
the victim "was very controlling and manipulative and would never let her
go out alone. ... He wouldn't say anything verbally, it was more like he would give
her a look and she would just back down and say, 'OK, sorry.' It was hard to
get time with her away from him."

Castro said she hadn't seen the victim in about a year. The
B.A.R. wasn't able to reach him for comment.

Asked whether Tejero had reported abuse to police, Castro
said, "I'm not sure what's OK to say and what's not OK to say."

Tiffany Woods, a transgender activist based in the East Bay,
said in a Facebook exchange that she knows Tejero "pretty well," but
she hasn't had much contact with her in the past couple of years.

Woods said that Tejero broke up with the victim
"several months ago," and that it had been "a controlling
relationship."

She said Tejero hadn't talked to her directly about the
problems she was having with her husband, but "I always thought [he] was a
bit too quiet. ... Seems he was a quiet controller. Like with a look that she
understood. Nori was never without him at events."

Posts before shooting

Facebook posts made under the name "Noriel Herras"
and provided to the B.A.R. indicate that Tejero had been agitated in the days
leading up to the shooting.

In a June 29 post, Tejero made disparaging remarks about her
"replacement."

"Every time I ask him: Do you tell her about me at all?
He says NO so I tell him ... 'So why the fuck are you telling me about your
ugly old lady then' And the conversation ends with him always getting upset and
calling me very nasty names," Tejero said in the post, which was written
at 3:16 a.m.

In a post that afternoon, she wrote, "He acted in ways
that tested my patience and it took 7 long years of hell before I got the hint
and left. I told him NO ONE should have to suffer the way I did but I was too
stupid and in love with him ... It's hard to forget 24 years together and even
harder to let go of it when there is still no closure, for he still has lots of
my things in his custody, as I left with only the clothes on my back ... He
also thinks that playing games with me is fun and pushing my buttons by telling
me lies is the best thing in the world."

A July 5 post headlined "End of relationship" and
written less than three hours before the shooting said, "Now I truly know
the meaning of the 'If I can't have you no one else will even if I got someone
to replace you and don't want you back' while keeping MY replacement so close
to him so there is no chance for me to try to return the favor. ...
#myexisshittierthanyours."

Citing "privacy issues," Deputy District Attorney
Marina Mankaryous declined to confirm the victim's name, but she said, "He
had a gunshot wound to the lower leg." She couldn't comment on his current
condition.

Mankaryous said that "at this point in the
investigation, I don't have information to release" on whether there had
been abuse in Tejero's relationship with the victim.

However, it's "considered a domestic violence
case," said Mankaryous, since information she has shows that they had been
dating.

Castro said that Tejero, a 2010 grand marshal for the
Silicon Valley Pride festival, had worked at San Jose's Billy DeFrank LGBT
Community Center for more than five years, and she'd helped her start the
"Transpowerment" HIV prevention program there.

Tejero left DeFrank more than a year ago, said Castro. She
indicated it was because Tejero had disagreed with the agency's approach to
working with trans people.

Since then, Tejero's been "applying for jobs and trying
to find a way to survive," said Castro.

"She was marginally housed when all this
happened," said Castro. "She was staying on friends' couches."
She also said that Tejero's mother died "a couple years ago."

Castro has spoken to Tejero in jail.

"She just was in a state of shock and very emotional
and crying," said Castro. She said Tejero explained to her what happened,
"but I can't go into detail."

Gabrielle Antolovich, the DeFrank center's president,
declined to comment on Tejero because she can't talk about past employees.

Antolovich said she has "no idea" whether Tejero
and her ex-husband had had problems with each other, "and that's also
something I wouldn't even comment on."

The B.A.R. wasn't able to find any Santa Clara Superior
Court records online indicating there had ever been trouble between Tejero and
the victim.

A woman who answered the phone at the Costco where the
shooting occurred declined to comment.